Mike Whaley: Tiffany hopes to make Trey’s journey a little easier

Tiffany Bryant Delworth lights up like a Christmas tree when she talks about her twins, Trey and Ellie, showing an interest in playing basketball this year.

Check that, she lights up when she talks about her twins. Period.

But basketball is near and dear to Tiffany’s heart. She was a star at Spaulding High School in the early 1990s, the first girl at the school to score 1,000 points and the only Spaulding basketball player to score 1,000 points in both high school and college — she played on scholarship at what is now Southern New Hampshire University.

Basketball may be near and dear to Tiffany’s heart, but it takes a backseat when it comes to her children. It broke her heart when Trey, now 7, was diagnosed as a Type I Diabetic. Knowing the danger the disease carries with it, Tiffany is hoping to give her son with the necessary knowledge and support to live life to its fullest — including, if he chooses, playing basketball.

“I don’t care if they follow in my footsteps,” she said. “That they are going to play basketball this winter, I’m very excited about that. They really haven’t wanted to. I had them in it when they were 4. I was the coach and that was not very good. I was like, oh my gosh, I’m doomed. So I kind of just backed off. We play in the driveway. As a matter of fact we play on the same hoop I played on when I was in high school. The (rim ) is about ready to fall off.”

Trey was diagnosed as a diabetic over the Memorial Day weekend in 2011. Tiffany said once they got past the shock of the diagnosis, they quickly went into learning mode.

“As his parents, we became a nurse, a dietician, a nutritionist, a mathematician, a scientist and a chemist over night,” she said. Tiffany lives in Rochester with Trey and Ellie, next door to her mom, Sue, and step dad, Dave.

Tiffany graduated from SNHU in 1995 when it was New Hampshire College, earning her MBA in 1997. She spent 12 years in Atlanta pursuing a career and that’s where Trey and Ellie were born. She moved back to Rochester to be closer to family, and is glad she did.

“I’m a pretty strong person,” Tiffany said. “But this was one of those times I was glad I had moved home. I couldn’t imagine being alone down in Georgia trying to do this.”

Tiffany and her family were working in the back yard over the Memorial Day weekend in 2011 when Trey first showed symptoms they later learned were pretty typical of diabetes. He started being extremely thirsty.

The quote Tiffany remembers by about the third day from Trey was, “Mommy, there’s something wrong with my thirsty.”

It snowballed from there. They went to the hospital and there received the first news that Trey was a diabetic. Diabetes does not run in Tiffany’s family, but here it was.

“You realize it’s not anything you did and you couldn’t have prevented it,” Tiffany said. “Oh, by the way, there’s no cure either.”

Ellie doesn’t have it, but doctors said she could develop it unexpectedly. She carries the gene. With Ellie it might happen or it might never happen.

Tiffany quickly gained perspective about the condition that will be with Trey for the rest of his life.

“Diabetes is a terrible, terrible disease,” she said. “It kind of silently creeps up on you. It’s like that house guest that just never leaves. It doesn’t sleep. It doesn’t take vacation. It doesn’t go away.”

But you can fight it and in doing so, those with diabetes can live long, healthy, productive lives.

Trey is settling in to his life as a diabetic. Initially he was getting eight to 10 shots of insulin a day, but he was not intimidated.

“I realized it’s not really scary,” he said.

Now he has a Omni-pod pump on his arm, which injects Basal insulin with a slow drip during the day. This pump was chosen with sports in mind because there are no tubes. Trey and Ellie both do karate and there is the basketball plan this winter, so the Omni is perfect for athletics.

“It stays on when you’re swimming or sweating,” Tiffany said.

The pod stays on for two and a half to three days and then it is taken off and a new one attached. They alternate it between arms.

Trey also takes a Bolus insulin after he eats a meal or snack, which could still mean six to eight shots, depending on the day.

“The devil of diabetes” is the night time and Tiffany sets her alarm for 12 and 3 a.m. to check in on him and wake him up and feed him with sugar if necessary.

There are no days or nights off. It’s a constant vigil keeping an eye on Trey’s blood sugar and making sure he’s eating right and getting proper insulin doses.

That’s where the Diabetic Alert Dog comes in. It’s a dog that’s been trained to live with diabetics and to read their highs and lows and then alert the parents. The cost for the dog is $18,000.

“These dogs can detect the lows before the meter can,” Tiffany said. “They train them to. If Trey started heading high, the dogs will alert us, the dogs become very anxious. They start pawing at the child and the parent. They won’t sit down.”

The dog sleeps by the child’s bed at night and alerts the parents if it detects a low coming on. The dog is with the child 24/7.

Earlier this year Tiffany started reading up on alert dogs and after some research decided to partner with Ed Peeples, head trainer at the National Institute of Diabetic Alert Dogs (NIDAD). NIDAD deals mainly with rescue dogs and their goal is to get those dogs to the right people.

Although every now and then someone comes along who writes a check to pay for the dog, Tiffany said 99 percent of the people have to fund-raise for their dogs.

“Wow, when I was told the cost, that’s what most people pay for a car,” Tiffany said. “Also, most people wouldn’t put a price on the life of their child.”

The alert dog became a priority.

“I got serious after some scares,” Tiffany said. “What else can I do to protect this child?”

Last month, Tiffany launched Trey’s Journey on Facebook. Her goal is not only to raise the funds for Trey’s alert dog, but to also educate people to the dangers of diabetes.

“Half of the battle is just the lack of knowledge,” Tiffany said.

Trey likes the idea of the dog, perking up and saying to his mom, “I know mommy doesn’t like getting up. Seriously.”

“That breaks my heart right there,” said Tiffany.

Tiffany and her family have a sound support system in place with two highly dependable young women and then Sue and Dave.

“When I’m tired, they go to Nana’s and Nana gives us a break,” Tiffany said.

Tiffany is currently leading the fund-raising effort for the dog with the help of her mom.

“It could take a couple months. It could take a couple years,” she said. “We’ll go with it. We‘ve found it brings the people in your life together and you hope your community.”

Tiffany smiles, Trey sitting beside her, now antsy after an interview of 40-plus minutes (“I’m so bored because I’m just sitting here.”)

“In my ideal world,” she says, “the dog will be sitting on the sidelines at Spaulding High School some day while he plays basketball. That’s what I hope.”

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The following fund-raisers are being done on Trey’s behalf:

Trey’s Journey dinner dance on Feb. 2 at Rochester American Legion Post 7, 6 p.m. There will be a silent auction and prize drawings. To purchase tickets, contact Sue at 603-765-5683 or susie@metrocast.net.

Trey’s Journey bracelets are available by emailing Tiffany at tiffdel44@gmail.com. Country Essentials at the Lilac Mall is also selling the bracelets during mall hours

You can also make a direct donation on the fund-raising website, the link is:

(http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/Trey-s-Journey/36965)

There is also a softball tournament in the works for early June. Interested teams should contact Tiffany at tiffdel44@gmail.com.

Mike Whaley is the Sports Editor for Foster’s Daily Democrat and the Rochester Times. He can be reached at mwhaley@fosters.com.